


Rhapsodist's Shining Star

by SirTeateiMoonlight



Series: The Passionate Soul [1]
Category: Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Alcohol, F/M, Post-Canon, Xenoblade Chronicles Spoilers, optional epilogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-08-15 18:39:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8068423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirTeateiMoonlight/pseuds/SirTeateiMoonlight
Summary: Sometimes it's easy to give someone a birthday present. But when the present is too special to be seen in public, and too personal to be seen with at all, it's a bit more difficult...





	1. Operation

It was a completely cloudless night. The near-full moon was crossing into the airspace of the Pedagogue constellation, creating the illusion of a great lightbulb over its head as it lectured the thick band of stars underneath.

It was a very poor night for trying to walk around in secret. And yet this is exactly what one particular person had set herself up to do.

Melia was nervously pacing around the room, cursing herself for not being brave enough to go the previous night, which had been nice and overcast but exceptionally rainy. It would have been easier to avoid detection, but her dislike of getting wet had won the debate. The night before was about as clear as this one and was also ruled out, but there was no waiting for another chance this time - it had to be tonight or never.

Okay, probably not "never". Melia had been fighting with herself about this "mission" for the past month and couldn't see herself being able to let it go, even if the next opportunity would not be for another year. And a whole entire year of it continuing to weigh on her mind was not exactly ideal.

Still, thinking about it as a "last chance" was sure to help pull though it all. The continual pacing probably was not. She dropped herself into the chair at the table and ran her finger over the map yet again. It was a simple enough "get in, get out" plan, but having to do so without being spotted was the hard part.

After some more deliberation, Melia stood up - perhaps faster than necessary, as the chair was knocked into the wall - and made for the front door, striding out into the night. She had elected to wear the darkest purple dress she owned, to hopefully make her harder to see in the darkness. She finished buckling a pair of Quick Step Gems into her boots and started moving towards the exit cave. With her main goal of remaining unseen, she could not risk using the transport pad that linked directly to Colony 9, as the transport centre was under constant supervision by the Defence Force - she would have to walk. It was not a great distance, but even with the Quick Step Gems it would be around a 40-minute journey.

* * *

In the months following the recreation and reorganization of the world, a series of transport pads had been set up that connected the five major settlements. Colony 9 was on the coast and was presently being considered the unofficial capital of the region. Colony 6 was more inland and had the most residents. Frontier Village remained mostly intact, though the forest around it was a little smaller. The Fallen Arm was no longer a mechanical formation but a rocky one, appearing like a giant stone hand reaching into the sea, and had been rechristened Meyneth Arm. Finally, New Alcamoth was being constructed out to sea near the corpse of the Bionis, with the wreckage of the old capitol on the ocean floor beneath.

The situation had not been friendly to Melia. It started out quite interesting - the process of laying New Alcamoth's social foundation was pleasantly exhausting. But now that plans were inked and construction was ongoing, and there was no hint of the imperial line aside from herself to be found, there was nothing for her to do with her life until the city was finished and flourishing. The week after realizing this was quite depressing until two things happened.

First, the ever-observant Riki detected her mood, and invited her to come along on a map-making run. Being the de facto messanger species, they had taken it upon themselves to map out the space between and around the new settlements. On this map run, they had found a narrow cave that opened up into a large clearing surrounded on all sides by rock, complete with several trees and a pond. Riki made an offhand comment that "Melly could build nice house here", knowing that Melia had been spending her time being a professional houseguest, and despite her reticence he ran with it. Within three weeks Melia was standing in a fully-furnished two-room bungalow and trying her hardest to not cry in front of dozens of volunteers.

The very next day, the second morale-boosting event occured. Another map run had found a crashed High Entia transport that hadn't existed in the previous world and had no logical reason to exist in this one. Waiting inside was Alvis, as annoyingly secretive as ever, explaining that while he could not rescue Alcamoth through the "reboot" (a term he used that was met with blank stares), he could preserve at least some of their knowledge. The transport was then revealed to contain almost a library's worth of books. Even Melia had difficulty containing her glee as she stocked her pick of the tomes and directed the rest to the various colonies for the resident Alcamoth survivors to peruse.

With a house to herself and enough books to cover waiting for a city to rule, Melia's mood improved dramatically, spending most of her time absorbing all the information she had not previously been authorised to read. However, along with all her free time came a lot of thinking, and it was inevitable that her mind would return to the subject of Shulk. It didn't matter how many times she told herself that he was out of her picture, or that she had officially chose to give him up - as time passed his image kept floating to the forefront more and more.

And then Riki mentioned in passing that Shulk's birthday was in a month, and he and Dunban would be planning the biggest party that Colony 9 had ever seen.

* * *

With the walls of Colony 9 coming into sight, Melia slowed her jog down to a walk. The Night Vision Gem in her headdress let her see that there were two Defence Force soldiers guarding the nearest entrance, and they both looked reasonably alert. Having a plan to get into the colony unseen was all well and good, but executing it was another matter. She decided that her best hope of success was to move quickly without thinking about it.

Melia came to rest behind a rock and brought out her infiltration tool: a grappling hook. It was not easy to acquire; there was a mountaineering shop in the colony, but it had lacked the proper kind of metal to fashion safe hooks for the longest time. Even then, it was an unpleasant experience to try and explain why a crown princess was buying extreme sports equipment. She hoped her practice with the rock faces surrounding her home would be enough to scale the colony walls.

She peeked out from behind the rock to watch the guards. Colony 9's guards were never known to be top-cheese, but this pair was at least sticking to their post and not making small talk. If Melia made a mistake, she was pretty sure they would notice it. She did not know if Earth Cloak Gems were effective on sentient beings or not, but she chose to take one as a brooch just in case. With no need to distract and so risk alerting the guards, Melia started moving to the left side of the entrance. The guards paid no attention to her - some part of her protection was effective - and she reached the wall with no problem.

Of course, that was the easy part. She started twirling the hook around, testing its weight more than preparing to throw. She considered herself lucky that the colony had expanded its borders across the bridge that used to be the main entrance, as otherwise this throw would not only need to cover four times the distance, but involve her standing on the seafloor. Finally she released the hook and watched it sail over the wall, making a dull impact on the soil inside.

Now was probably the riskiest part. Getting caught trying to scale the colony's walls in the dead of night would do no one any good. Melia started carefully pulling on the knotted rope. She could hear the hook scraping as it moved up the wall and could only hope that no one was in the park on the other side. After what seemed like an eternity, she felt the hook catch on something strong enough to support her weight. Exchanging the Quick Step Gems in her boots for Good Footing ones, she started scaling the wall.

Compared to the rock faces she had practiced on, the colony wall had more foothold opportunities but was at a much more inconvenient 90-degree angle. It was overall not difficult, but she kept pausing to check if the guards were in sight, which made it a bit more tiresome. She reached the top sooner than expected to see the hook caught on the top rim of the wall.

Melia unhooked the grapple and looked over the colony. The park just below was poorly lit on purpose to preserve the plants' natural day-night instinct, and the path she had plotted swerved through all the dimmest streets. Even without cloud cover, there should be enough darkness to cover her movements. Of course, the first part of the path involved dropping down from her current perch - and even though the ground was soft, her Good Footing Gems did nothing to protect her from being an absolute klutz at landings. Wiping the dirt off herself, Melia stood up and backed up against the wall, waiting to see if the guards had heard her ungraceful plummet. With no such evidence presented, she set off, moving carefully rather than quickly.

The colony seemed much emptier than it normally was at this hour, with only a half-dozen people around. It did not take long to reach the Weapons Development Lab. The lack of lights on told Melia that no one was there, so she slipped in. Unfortunately, the lab was too empty - the Monado stand was bare, with its corresponding weapon absent. The plan had required it not be.

"...oh no." The words managed to escape from Melia's mouth because she could suppress them. Looking around quickly in paranoia to affirm she was indeed alone, she sat in the chair at the desk and started thinking quickly.

_The Monado is not here. I cannot guarantee Shulk will come here tomorrow if the Monado is not here now._

_Shulk would never let the Monado out of his sight. It must be wherever he is._

_Shulk has no reason to be outside the colony. Riki would see to it that Shulk not ruin the plans by being elsewhere.  
_

_...The Monado must be in Shulk's house._

The realization of what had to be done next was instant and unpleasant. Melia sighed and quickly made for the exit. The less time she spent thinking about what she had to do, the better.

Improvisation was not Melia's strong suit. Twice she turned around upon coming to an intersection too brightly-lit for her liking, and jumped at the presence of a stray pet crossing her path. At the very least, the Residential District had even fewer people up and about to impede her. After what felt like an hour (but was more like ten minutes), she finally reached Dunban's house, with Shulk's house just alongside.

In the old world, Shulk didn't have a house of his own, taking turns between rooming with Dickson and sleeping at the lab. However, when Alvis created the new world, he made minor reorganizations to the buildings of the colony, one of which involved adding a new house next door to Dunban's. Eager to distance himself from the memory of Dickson, Shulk had moved in almost without a second thought.

While passing by Dunban's house, Melia heard snoring, which she took as a good indicator that both Dunban and Fiora were asleep; it seemed like Dunban had a rule for himself that he would never go to sleep before his sister. Melia then did a double-take - she'd never known Dunban to snore before. Then again, it would be kind of impossible to hear him over Reyn. Chuckling to herself a little, she walked on to Shulk's house and stopped dead.

Shulk's bedroom light was still on.

Melia was transfixed and began to panic somewhat. Her hastily-concocted Plan B did succeed at finding Shulk's whereabouts, but it relied on him being asleep and subsequently dead to the world. There was no way she could get into the house without him hearing and coming downstairs.

Unless...he fell asleep without turning the light out. That would be just like Shulk, studying some complex engineering problem without a care for the time and just falling asleep at his desk. Melia gathered her resolve - she had come this far, she had to go as far as possible to try and succeed. Slowly pushing the front door open (Shulk never locked it, since he was always scrambling back and forth to help people with their problems), she stepped inside the dark ground floor.

She had never been in Shulk's house before, but it was pretty easy to guess he lived here. The kitchen had as many book stacks as dish stacks, and said dish stacks were either an unwashed disheveled mess or a perfectly clean tower (probably Fiora's handiwork). The fridge was covered in magnets, each holding up various schematics and diagrams, though the most prominently-displayed one was a letter inviting him to a skills competition. Light flowed down the stairs. There was no hint that an intruder had been detected.

Carefully picking her spots to avoid setting off any squeaky floorboards, Melia tiptoed across the room and shimmied up the stairs, peeking only her head up to the second floor's level. It was just as messy as downstairs, except with more papers and less food. The bedroom door was ajar and the empty bed was visible.

Continuing to remain quiet, but growing confident that Shulk was asleep at the wheel, Melia clambered through the mess and sneaked into the bedroom. It was surprisingly tidy inside, with neat piles of documents as opposed to the slapdash ones seen previously. Shulk was indeed totally conked out, his face buried in an oddly large book that appeared quite new. The Monado was propped up against the desk.

Melia let out a great sigh of relief. She had finally reached the point where she could drop her payload, get back home, and stop worrying about this whole mess she set up for herself. Reaching into her storage, she extracted a small square box about the length of half a pencil. It was wrapped in green and completely nondescript. She gently placed it on the desk next to the Monado's handle, ensuring that Shulk would see it the next morning. There was no way he could see a mysterious gift and not be driven to tear it open on the spot. Pleased with herself, she backed away from the desk.

Her sleeve caught the Monado's handle and caused it to fall onto the floor, making a great clattering noise.

Gasping, Melia took a great step backwards and cowered against the wall, expecting Shulk to wake up any moment despite knowing he could sleep through anything. He didn't budge.

Another massive sigh of relief filled the room.

After taking a few moments to compose herself, Melia crept towards the Monado so she could put it back where it was. Was it safe to pick up? The last time she witnessed someone who wasn't Shulk try to wield the Monado, it was Dunban. The group was in Mechonis Field and Shulk had been knocked out just after warning the group of a vicious attack that was to come. Dunban attempted to grab the Monado so he could use Monado Shield, but the sword had reacted violently, instead forcing Dunban to attack the target Mechon. The forseen attack then came, and it was lucky that it only grazed Dunban, as not long afterwards he dropped the Monado and lost consciousness. It took several minutes of concentrated healing once the battle was over to get him back on his feet.

That said, this wasn't exactly the same Monado. Not only did it possess two previously-unseen symbols and the ability to harm Homs despite its appearance as its shackled form, but it was given to Shulk by Alvis before he first went to the invitational skills competition. With Zanza no longer in existence, there was no real reason for the sword to impose a foreign will on anyone.

Still, there was no reason to be careless. Melia carefully picked up the Monado with both hands on the blade and slowly moved it back where it belonged. She then stood up carefully and prepared to leave.

However, something caught her eye just as she was about to turn away: the book Shulk had been reading before he fell asleep. His head was resting on the right half of the book, but there was no mistaking the writing it was obscuring: it was High Entia script. Even more oddly, the unobstructed left page was in standard Hom writing. No book from the old world would ever have been written in both alphabets.

Curiosity piqued, Melia carefully bent over to read the left page.

_and so Regulus was sent to rot in the imperial prisons, with no trial or parole, never to be heard from again._

_No sooner had the fate of Regulus been known than a new horrific act againt the Imperial Family came to pass. Emperor Camberole, now two hundred years of age, and his two sons Glenth and Peroth, presently in a good-natured competition to earn the throne, all met their untimely demise at the hands of what was described as "a fiery blast that incinerated the dining chambers". The throne naturally passed to Camberole's younger brother Delus, who told the public that the Cratere Nebulas used in the kitchens had escaped and detonated, subsequently outlawing their usage for imperial functions. The public suspected this was not the truth, however, and the most common rumour was the correct one: that the Bionite Order had assassinated the half-blood Peroth, who was winning the competition, without care for the collateral damage. Delus, genuinely believing the false evidence the Order had planted for him, was forever dogged by the event._

_It was several decades after the incident that Delus begat his first heir: Entirmina, daughter of First Consort Verila. However, he had an exceptional amount of difficulty procuring a Second Consort. The issue was twofold. The rumours of the Bionite Order systematically slaughtering Second Consorts and their heirs was becoming more prevalent even amongst the Homs of Colony 8, the settlement of Bright Shoulder Plateau where most such wives were obtained. In addition, Colony 8 had become the target of several hard-hitting Mechon attacks, killing many of the remaining candidates. Bound in red tape and public apathy, Delus could do nothing to help. Within a few short years the colony had been evacuated by the last three dozen survivors, and was quickly completely destroyed._

_Upon reaching the age of three hundred, Delus admitted defeat, and produced a second heir of the First Consort: Sorean. He then abdicated the throne to Entirmina in order to spend more time with his son, as the constant battering over his brother's death took its toll on his health. He died merely fifty years later, leaving Sorean to be raised by his elder sister. With the pure-blood Entirmina as Empress, and little success at finding another Homs colony that was both safe from Mechon and believing of the High Entia, the Bionite Order slunk back into the shadows._

_Thirty years after the death of Delus, with Sorean old enough to look after himself, Entirmina married to Bellarius at a young age. She was eager to take on the challenge of locating a Second Consort - it was well-known that male Homs were easier to find for such purpose than females. However, her plans were almost immediately overturned by a terrible stroke of luck: she was found to be infertile. She could produce no heirs, and by the imperial texts, she could not re-abdicate the throne to Sorean without implicitly casting a call for dishonour upon her father's name. The news was debilitating to the entire royal family. Ancient texts were scrounged, entire libraries were overturned, in an attempt to locate a precedent for what to do with the situation. None were found._

_The following twenty years were not pleasant. As the imperial bureaucracy fought against itself, Entirmina and Sorean worked together to find a way to continue the imperial line. Eventually it was determined that, while Entirmina could not give up the throne, Sorean would be allowed to produce heirs on her behalf. Of course, such a novel recourse was not well-received by the Bionite Order. They needed to plant an operative within the royal family itself in an attempt to stifle any further revolutions. They selected Yumea, and_

Melia's eyes instinctively flicked up to the top of the next page, only to be blocked by Shulk's head. It was an uncomfortable drag back into reality. She tried reading some of the visible High Entia script, but it seemed to have exactly the same content as the Homs side - which was yet another layer of curiosity.

She had known most of this stream of history before - why Cratere Nebulas had been banned, why Second Consorts were hard to come by, why Aunt Entirmina had died twenty years ago at age 350 with no children. Still, it was an engrossing read, and the interspersed history of the Bionite Order was new to her - possibly to everyone, as not even the texts she had in her room made mention of their exploits since they were officially disbanded by Emperor Lumian centuries ago.

Melia chanced a peek at the book's title. Carefully lifting up the unobstructed left half, she glanced at the cover: _History of the Bionite Order, Bilingual Edition_. It also listed two authors: Tyrea and Shulk.

Suddenly, a whole lot of things made sense. Melia had seen Tyrea around several times since the new world's creation, but always at a great distance, and could never approach before she vanished - apparently she'd been writing a book about the Order and her experience in it. Shulk wasn't just cooped up studying High Entia technology - he was simultaneously learning their language, making him ideal for translation.

A whole flood of new feelings sloshed around Melia's mind. It was hard to believe she could feel any more fondness for Shulk, yet here he was, spending his free time helping document the history of her culture. She vaguely wondered whether he would be signing copies of the book upon its seemingly sooner-rather-than-later release.

Realizing that she had been here for quite a while, she shook her head and moved towards the exit, glancing back at the gift on the desk. With what she had just learned, she was more sure than ever that she had done the right thing. Before leaving she decided to turn out the light and close the door, to hopefully stop a particular overexuberant Nopon from assuming it would be safe to barge in the next morning.


	2. Celebration

Shulk was having quite a strange dream. He was sitting in Dunban's kitchen when two Fioras walked in and started arguing with each other. Shulk had no idea what they were saying, because Reyn was laughing real hard and kept bashing the table, trying to squish the miniature Rikis running around on it. Eventually the Fioras stopped arguing and both turned to Shulk with an expectant look on their faces. Uh-oh.

"Morning-time! Shulk the birthdaypon must get up and be ready!"

Riki was alternating between knocking on the bedroom door with his fists and with his belly. Sure, there were probably more effective ways to accomplish his goal, but he always preferred the fun path.

"Wakey-wakey! Sun shine! Breeze blow! Hom Hom grow lipfuzz and facebeard!"

Shulk opened one eye, slowly realizing that he was not in fact about to get told off by two Fioras, but by a determined Nopon. For...some reason. He was too busy realizing his neck hurt to think about what Riki was going on about. Still thinking he was in bed, he tried to get up and ended up rocking his chair backwards, slamming himself back-first onto the floor.

"Birthdaypon awake! Come, breakfast is outside! No keep anyone waiting!" Satisfied with the loud noise, Riki rolled downstairs and dashed outside, eager to start eating himself.

Shulk groaned and rolled out of the chair. Now his head hurt too. Bumbling to his feet, he groggily realized that he must have dozed off while proofreading Tyrea's book last night. It was kind of strange really - he'd never been much for books with words before, only books with numbers. There was just something about the history of the High Entia that intrigued him.

Rubbing his sore neck, he opted for a change of clothes; several people would get on his case for wearing the same thing two days in a row. _Today feels like a red day_ , he thought, and dressed accordingly.

_Wait. Don't I have a birthday coming up soon?_

_Hold on, why is there a pancake buffet outside?_

The realization hit Shulk like a bag of bricks. Not only was today his birthday, but there were people outside waiting on him to show up.

_...uh-oh._

He immediately tripped on the chair that he neglected to set upright, sending him tumbling to the floor once again. Not exactly a good omen for the day ahead. Trying to ignore his general soreness and put himself together, he hastily dashed for the exit.

_Oh wait, I can't leave without..._

Shulk turned back for the Monado. He knew that, if Riki was taking an active role in the day's festivities, there would be no way that he'd be allowed out of his own house without carrying the weapon that had become asscociated with himself.

He picked up the modified replica of his old sword, absent-mindedly making sure that it looked good as new. Activating it just to be sure, he gave it a few swings, with the most curious of all symbols staring back at him from the glass inset: in fact, it looked more like a collection of four separate symbols than a single one.

スマ  
ブラ

Shulk slapped the Monado on his back and was once again prepared to leave - that is, until the subconsious part of his mind said "hey doofus, didn't you notice this" and directed him back to the desk, where a small green parcel was sitting. It looked a lot like a birthday present, if a bit low-key. He picked it up - it had a decent weight to it, but was still quite light. _This could make a good paperweight_ , he idly wondered, before the rational part of his brain finally woke up and kicked into gear.

_How'd this get in here?_

_Who's this from?_

_Why would anyone give me a present anonymously?_

Shulk started at the little box. There must be some reason why someone would go through the effort of sneaking in during the night for a small package instead of just handing it to him during the day. Was he supposed to open it in secret before the day began? Or was he supposed to wait until the day was over? Could this be some sort of trap that he wouldn't want to open alone?

"C'mon Shulk, we're waitin' on ya!" Reyn's yelling always cut through the window more easily than Shulk would have liked. He was fascinated by the mystery gift and couldn't wait to open it, but knowing himself and what had just happened last night, he would get stuck in a nerd trance with whatever it was and probably get bodied out of his own house. He tucked the box into his jacket and ventured outside.

* * *

The day had gone off mostly without a hitch - pancakes for breakfast, colony-wide sports in the morning, a buffet for lunch, more physical activities in the afternoon, a Nopon play depicting Shulk's adventure, and a feast featuring massive amounts of cake for dinner. And now was the main event: the presents, to be given out in the park's plaza.

Shulk's face had begun to hurt from smiling so much. It seemed like half of Colony 9 had something to give him, and gifts from the other settlements weren't exactly scarce either. Most of the gifts were standard birthday fare - socks, candy, and gift cards being the most common. The most memorable presents so far were a pair of ether-sensitive binoculars, a multivariate calculus textbook, a Machina welding mask, and a home-made Monado polishing kit. Heck, even Alvis had pitched in, though Shulk had no clue what a "telegraph" was and made a mental note to investigate it the next day. The table Shulk was sitting at was piled high with loot.

The gifts from his companions weren't exactly weak fare either. Sharla had given an antique watch that had been refurbrished into a casing made of Mechon armour. Dunban had given a copy of _Advanced Ether Physics Research_ , which Shulk had trouble lifting with both arms. Melia had given a High Entia engineering manual focused on the principles of flight. Riki had given a hand-crafted diorama of the Bionis and Mechonis with the "science station" Alvis had spoken of hanging overhead, which impressed Shulk simply to see proof that Riki could stand still. Reyn had given a hat made of a rare strain of Caterpie silk that reflects in different colours based on the angle of the sun.

Shulk could tell that Fiora was intentionally holding herself back at the end of the line, refusing offers to skip ahead. Upon finally reaching her it was obvious why - her present was three feet long and full of bubble wrap.

"Birthdaypon not spend all night popping all bubbles!" It was amazing, if a bit annoying, how Riki managed to get through pretty much the entire day without losing his voice. Shulk smirked and tossed the bubble wrap towards him, causing him to erupt into a series of "pow!"s as he started stomping it out.

Melia was watching from a front-row seat on the right side of the plaza, only because Riki had convinced her to not hang around in the back. She had found the whole affair mildly depressing, having not had a proper birthday celebration of her own since she was 75, and was not scheduled to have another until the age of 100. Still, watching the Heropon's childish antics made it impossible for anyone to keep a bad mood going.

Beyond the next layer of tissue paper, the gift was revealed and extracted - a framed painting of the seven companions staring across the ocean into the sunset, under the caption "To each their own path." Shulk was astonished. He knew Fiora started dabbling in painting upon regaining her Homs body, but had no idea she had reached this level of skill.

"...well? How do you like it?" The audience grew quiet.

Shulk was acutely aware that the situation called for a hug, but was even more aware that he was the worst in the colony at delivering one. He was also still holding the painting in both hands, which was kind of an obstacle to the hugging process, but couldn't put it down without looking like he disliked it. He attempted to split the difference by taking one arm off the painting, wrapping it around Fiora's midsection, and applying a squeezing motion. He didn't particularily care how awkward it looked, knowing Fiora would fix it up shortly by giving a proper hug back.

As Fiora repaired the hug and the audience made typical "awww" sounds, Shulk felt the mystery gift in his jacket. He had pretty much forgotten about it for most of the day. With all the other presents unwrapped, now was probably the best time to bring it out.

The hug broke off and Dunban made to stand up and declare what was to happen next. Shulk held up a "wait just a moment" finger towards him while standing up himself. He had no plan for what to say to the audience, so he just opened his mouth and let it ramble.

"Um, okay, so." This was a great start. "Well, there's actually one more present left here." He held up the small box.

The audience let out a collective gasp of intrigue, covering up Melia's personal gasp of horror. She would have bet everything she owned that Shulk's natural curiosity would compel him to open the gift in private the instant he saw it, yet here it is, about to be opened in view of over a hundred people. It was the worst-case scenario.

"I found this in my room today. I have no idea who it's from, or what it could be." He softly shook it sideways a little bit, determining that whatever was inside was bottom-heavy. "So let's open it up."

He started removing the paper, being noticeably more careful than with most of his presents, to reveal an equally-nondescript wooden box. A low mutter fell over the audience.

Melia was completely frozen, her face trying to decide whether to turn white with fear or red with embarassment. It didn't matter that literally no one else alive in this world would have any idea what this was, or that the odds of actually discovering the anonymous gifter to be herself were incredibly small. The most important thing was that the knowledge of its existence would remain private, and that was about to go out the window.

Shulk opened the top of the box, revealing an otherwordly glow from within. The audience fell silent as he reached in, lifted out the object, and placed it on the table.

Perched on a pyramid-shaped stand of ebony was what appeared to be a glass ball, about five centimetres in diameter, full of a constantly shifting mass of coloured light. The base had carvings along three of the four beveled bottom edges in a language that Shulk did not know, though he had the distant feeling he'd seen similar before. It was a glorious sight.

The crowd reacted accordingly, releasing a mixture of "ooh"s and "ahh"s. Shulk stared at the sphere intently, feeling an unusual calm drift over his mind as he did so. He didn't have the first clue what it was other than "beautiful", but it was more than likely both rare and expensive, if not outright the only one of its kind.

After a minute or two, Dunban stood up as previously attempted, jolting Shulk out of his half-trance. "An impressive way to end an impressive haul." Applause. "Now then, with that all sorted, let's get things cleared up a bit and open the floor."

Shulk carefully replaced the mystery orb into the box and closed it up. "I'll need a bit of help getting all this stuff back to my place."

"'Course ya will. Let's get a move on! Can't wait for the party to really start." Reyn rolled his arm and grabbed a large basket. "C'mon Melia, don't just sit there like a lump, we might dance into ya!" He let out a laugh and started to help pile gifts into the basket.

"...um, yes, of course..." Melia moved a muscle for the first time in several minutes and began slowly inching towards the park's sidelines. Watching her plan crumble before her eyes was a surreal feeling that she didn't think had completely sunk in yet. And it could still get worse - it was inevitable that "the beautiful surprise mystery gift" would be the talk of the town for some time, with her already able to hear gossip forming from the crowd over who could have sent it. Her current objective was to stay out of any such conversations, and subsequently leave the party as soon as possible without coming under suspicion for leaving early.

 _And then...then I'll cry, I suppose._ As soon as the unexpected thought crossed her mind, her eyes decided to go all-in and went straight to work.

"Melly is leaking sadness again." Sometimes it felt like Riki was sitting on her shoulders at all times. It was quite unnerving.

Out came the fake smile. "I'm fine, Riki. I just..." The lie machine groaned at being pressed into service yet again. "It's nice to see Shulk be given so much gratitude."

Normally Riki would be able to see through such a flimsy fib, but perhaps due to his unkillable good mood, he took the bait. "Mm yes. Shulk never accept gratitude of words from friends and others. Always team effort, he says, never himself. But birthdaypon no can reject gratitude of things!"

Melia nodded. With the conversation successfully killing her tears, she wanted to be alone again. "Why don't you find Oka? I'm sure everyone would love to see one of your Nopon dances."

"Reyn challenge Riki to dancefight, one-on-one! Already preparing moves to show! Reyn is easy money!"

* * *

With all the colony children losing interest and being ushered to bed by their parents at about nine o'clock, Dunban took up a position behind the bar and started the flow of alcoholic drinks. The dance floor had begun to thin out as most people started sitting down and gossiping, making it possible to watch individual pairs of people.

Reyn and Riki did indeed put on a dance-off for the ages; Riki was initally assumed to be the winner by default after his first-round performance, but Reyn managed to pull off some quite spectacular moves that impressed even his opponent. After several rounds with both participants taking drinks between them, it was eventually called a tie after they both crashed into the same tree. Not long afterwards, Fiora took to the center of the floor with Shulk dragged alongside. At an utter loss of what to do, he just kind of shimmied around a little bit as Fiora danced circles around him.

Melia was hanging around the park exit, holding half a glass of non-alcoholic Entian Ale to deter nosy people from trying to buy her drinks. She could tell by Shulk's regressive attitude that he wanted out of the social madness just as much as she did, and figured that once he left the party, anyone else was free to do so. Her instinct was proven correct once the song ended and a dizzy Shulk raised his voice.

"Okay, it was a great day everyone, and I'm sure you all enjoyed yourselves as much as I did, but I need to go to bed." The crowd respectfully clapped as he stumbled back towards the Residential District, a sore left foot added to his list of injuries, as Fiora was not an immaculate dancer.

Melia finished her lukewarm drink and placed the empty glass on the bar while Dunban wasn't looking. She then turned towards the colony exit - she would rather walk an hour in an attempt to clear her head than simply transport home and go to bed miserable.

"Melia!" Fiora had appeared in her path like magic, wearing a big smile. "How's it going? You enjoying the party?"

The immediate instinct that popped into Melia's head was to take her drink and dump it in Fiora's face. Luckily, not only had she just gotten rid of her drink, but she had several decades of practice at surpressing such instincts.

"I enjoyed it more before it became...rowdy." It was pretty much the truth. Melia much preferred uptight "events" with an enforced dress code and a focus on respectable conversation over a crowded plaza full of increasingly drunk people trying to dance and pick up dates.

"So you're leaving then?" Fiora's smile was much smaller, but it never seemed to go away.

Melia nodded. "I see no purpose for me to remain any longer."

"Well, see you later then." Fiora turned around and took off after Shulk's distant form.

Melia was relieved at how easy it was to get rid of her assailant, having expected a long drawn-out plea to hang around. Not wasting any more time, she left the colony and started walking home.


	3. Relevation

It was the third time in two nights Melia had made the long walk between her house and Colony 9, but this time around she was taking it slowly and quite enjoying it, trying to crowd out the memories of what had happened with her special gift. The sky was clear once more, and the moon was repeating its nightly stroll past the head of the Pedagogue.

In the first few days of living in this new world, the skies were a source of much strangeness. The moving sun was frightening to many, and the moving moon made it trickier to intuitively know what sign of the zodiac was active. But the High Entia astronomers, working together with the Machina, quickly developed a new theory of the universe that explained both the moving bodies and how the sea seemed to curve out of sight. The idea of a spherical earth was still strongly debated by many, but it was expected to take a while to become pure fact.

The stars on the other hand were nicely behaved, with the same constellations in the same positions and yearly movements. Melia was always one for stargazing and astrology, and was mostly walking slowly so she could take more time to observe.

The Pedagogue was the sign of August. (No one knew the origins of the names and lengths of their timekeeping systems, though Alvis claimed they stemmed from Zanza's original society.) Shulk exhibited all of its typical attributes: a no-nonsense, socially-deficient introvert focused on the ways of logic and science. Melia herself was a Rhapsodist, the February sign of perfectionism, stubborness, and active leadership. Melia recalled how she could not sleep the night she discovered Shulk's sign, both excited and worried at how perfectly it coincided with her own - it was traditional astrological lore that a pair of signs diametrically opposed in the sky provided the best chance of romance.

This train of thought, however, lead to staring distastefully at the east, where the Athlete was rising. Fiora's November birthday, at right angles to Shulk's, should have ensured a negative affinity between the two, not a death-transcending love. No friendship between an Earth sign and an Electric sign was supposed to last for long, especially one of opposed polarity.

Melia shook her head. It was so easy to be envious of Fiora's position, yet equally difficult to hate Fiora herself. She legitimately knew that Fiora was the best partner Shulk could have, yet still could not bring herself to be free of the fantasy of selfishly breaking it up.

She returned to the stars to try and get her mind elsewhere. Above the Athlete was the Warrior, the extroverted Fire sign. She did not know for certain when Reyn's birthday was, but she would bet that it would be in the impulsive sign of October. It would also be a decent match for Sharla, a Perfumer of March. Knowing that Sharla was also into astrology, Melia wondered if she knew of Reyn's birthday. Dunban's birthday was similarly unknown to her, and Riki was oddly reluctant to reveal his.

Of course, the sky didn't just have stars, but wanderers. Surprisingly enough, the quirkily-named coloured discs operated as expected in the new world, though the new "solar system" theory made their movements far easier to understand. The conflict-bringing Red Star was currently under the Elder's eyes, suggesting a disagreement with a superior, while the Joyous Star was visible near the baton of the Conductor, bringing celebration alongside music. The other wanderers were not visible, positioned below the horizon.

 _Joyous in Conductor was portent of the birthday party today_ , thought Melia. _But what of Red in Elder? I have no superior with which to disagree._ Several minutes were spent considering the idea. _The Elder also represents one's own conscience. Perhaps it refers to how I debated with myself over the past while with respect to Shulk's gift._

The call of some animal in the distance derailed her train of thought. Unable to remember what she was thinking, she mentally shrugged and decided to recite some of the names of the more promonent stars. _The Conductor's baton, formed of Treb and Teno, points to the North Star. The Conductor's head is the Tempo Star, a duo of Quartus and Octus. Below such..._

* * *

It was about quarter to eleven when Melia finally reached the front door of her house, now considering some of the more unusual gifts Shulk had received.

 _Alvis had mentioned that this "telegraph" requires two distant operatives yet may have an unpredictable maximum range_ , she pondered. _My house is distant from Colony 9 yet closer than any other settlement. Perhaps I will offer help to Shulk tomorrow should he still wish to investigate it further._

Melia entered the house and noticed that the map of Colony 9 she had used to plan last night's escapade was still on the table. It was a low-detail copy of the full colony map that no longer had any purpose, so she tossed it into the fireplace. _Best not to think of that again._ During her long walk home she believed she had come to terms with her botching the delivery of Shulk's special gift - while its existence was no longer a secret, as long as its purpose and origin remained unknown, she figured she could live with it. Besides, Shulk was never anything less than impressively oblivious to her feelings towards him, making it even more unlikely for the beans to be spilled, and it was a relief to no longer have to stare at the light shining through the box's cracks as she tried to sleep.

She looked towards the calendar attached to the far wall. The only day with any sort of markings on it was today the 19th - August had been quite an empty month, with not much upcoming in September either. She vaguely wondered whether the portents of the astronomers would indeed result in massive seasonal variations - she did not look forward to the possibility of the temperature dropping dramatically in the next few months.

Pausing for a moment to decide that a snack was in order, Melia took stock of the cupboards. While she missed the vastness of the imperial palace and the ability to effectively snap her fingers and acquire anything she desired, it was almost a dream come true to live alone in a small house in the middle of nowhere, with no rules or regulations imposed by others. If she wanted to eat some fudge in the middle of the night, nothing could stop her.

Taking a slab of fudge from a high shelf, she lobbed a chunk off which a knife, which was then carefully washed before being replaced. If there was one thing from her old lifestyle she couldn't bring herself to break, it was cleanliness at all times. She wrapped the soft fudge in a napkin and washed her hands - she planned to read for a while and then go to bed, and though eating while reading was a newfound pleasure, there was simply no reading with fudgy hands.

Turning to ensure that the front door was locked and the light was off, Melia ended up walking into her bedroom backwards. Only upon closing the door and turning around did she see the worst thing she could possibly imagine.

"Oh. Um, hi."

Shulk was sitting at her desk, with the gift sitting on it, casting its polychromatic light over the room.

Melia went completely rigid, dropping the fudge on the floor. The jig was up. How he found out was not even relevent. There was no escape.

Shulk wasn't sure what kind of reaction he had expected, but this probably wasn't it. He continued to display a weak smile in an attempt to loosen the tension, but after several seconds had passed and Melia was still petrified, he figured he'd have to make the next move.

"This...is from you, isn't it?"

When he'd rehearsed the line to himself earlier, he used the wording "This is yours, isn't it?". He wasn't really sure why he changed it on a whim, but it did sound more respectful.

Melia continued to not budge an inch. She didn't need Shulk to confirm that, yes, you've been caught. Her brain was trying to both unfreeze itself and come up with some sort of explanation - a fabricated one if necessary, as her shocked reaction had already betrayed that Shulk got it right. Her eyes trying desperately to open the floodgates didn't help.

She could not have prepared herself for Shulk's next question.

"You keep the other one, don't you?"

It took a few seconds for the meaning of the question to sink in. Once it did, Melia changed from a stone statue to a wet rag, collapsing onto the floor and crying profusely.

Shulk frowned. The inner workings of womens' minds were always a total enigma to him, and since doing what made sense seemed to have made things worse, he figured it was time to try something that otherwise made no sense.

Leaving Melia blubbering on the floor, Shulk stood up and cast an eye around the room. He'd tried to avoid snooping too much when he first arrived, but now that he pretty much knew exactly what he was looking for, an oddly familiar sensation started emenating from behind a shelf of smaller books. He reached behind and extracted a wooden box, effectively identical to the one sitting open on the desk, though stained a darker colour and much heavier. He carefully opened it up and placed the contents on the desk.

It was clearly the other half of the pair. The stand was carved in ivory instead of ebony, and the glyphs along the bottom were slightly different. But the obvious difference was the focal point: instead of a weightless glass ball of light perched atop the base, there was basically a rock. A perfectly spherical rock, but a rock nevertheless. There was an eerie feeling of nothingness surrounding it.

Shulk's frown intensified. _Did she give me the fixed one and keep the broken one? She knows I'm good at fixing things, why not do the opposite?_

His mind cast over some of the other stuff on the desk. A lamp, some books, a few papers. The paper on top was a jumble of unusual symbols.

_Wait a minute. Those symbols!_

Shulk carefully slid the paper closer. It was a hodgepodge of High Entia letters and mystery symbols, with lines and arrows connecting them in intriguing ways.

 _These symbols...we saw them in the High Entia Tomb._ Shulk looked back at the two spheres and their stands. _And look, it's the same script as on the stands! It's like an old alphabet, full of messages to decode!_

Looking at more papers on the desk provided more text of the ancient alphabet. Melia was clearly working on decoding the old texts, as each crown ruler was decreed to do upon their ascension to the throne, but it was evident she was not a linguist and her progress was slow.

The pattern-finder in Shulk's brain kicked into overdrive. Oblivious to all around him, in less than two minutes he had cracked a particularily stubborn character mapping, and from there it was simply a case of following the chain reaction down the pipe. Within four minutes he had a fresh sheet of paper covered in his untidy scrawl, describing some of the more unusual circuitous conversion processes. He applied his findings and was able to read most of the ancient script, discovering that most of it was eulogies. Considering it was probably all from the Tomb, this made sense.

Excitedly looking for more stuff to decode, he turned back to the orbs and their bases. He tried his own, the ebony one, first. The uninked carvings were not easy to read, but they ended up being not much harder to decode.

_In times of anger, haste, and war | Let the steadfast feelings of your lover | Calm your passionate heart_

Shulk's exuberance started to dip, realizing he might be stumbling across something that was not supposed to be known. Still, he continued with the ivory base.

_In times of fear, loneliness, and doubt | Let the passionate feelings of your lover | Bolster your steadfast heart_

Well, being a pair, the similarity made sense. It didn't help him figure out what they were all about, though he was starting to suspect it was one of those deep-rooted "girl things", as Fiora had once put it.

His thoughts were interrupted by a hand on his shoulder. Turning to look, he found himself starting straight into Melia's eyes. She was standing on her knees and wearing the unusual combination of a tear-streaked face and a small, almost relieved smile. He was embarrassed to admit that he'd forgotten she was there, crying her head off while he snooped though her things. He felt like a cad.

"Er." He didn't get much else off before being captured in a tight hug. Well, he was right about one thing - doing what made no sense seemed to improve the situation.

With no sign of the hug ending, Shulk mentally shrugged and wrapped his free arm around Melia's shoulders. It occurred to him that "people hugged by Melia" must be quite an exclusive list, with her father and Riki being the only ones he could recall being on it, and her mother and brother probably being three and four. With her being so picky over who to add to said list, he had to have done something seriously impressive - but he had no idea what. Maybe decoding the ancient glyphs was a huge deal to her.

After what felt like an eternity, Melia finally let go and fell onto the floor, quickly clambering up to sit on the bed next to the desk. She wasn't sure why, but a feeling of relief had overtaken all her other emotions. Mass quantities of embarrassment and several more helpings of tears were surely to come, but she decided that Shulk deserved to know exactly what was going on.

"You may ask any questions of me regarding this matter." It was kind of a funny wording to start the conversation with, but it's what came naturally.

Shulk went with (what he thought was) the most obvious question first. "What are they?"

"They are...a treasure of the imperial family, passed down for as long as historical records exist. None but the imperial family has known of their existence for thousands of years. They are known as the Sun's Tear and Moon's Tear."

"Well okay, but that's not really what I meant. What do they do?" Something in Shulk's mind was telling him these were not simply decorative artifacts.

Melia was slightly unnerved that the socially-clueless Shulk had figured out the objects had a purpose, but continued. "They...gauge the feelings that one owner has for another. The stronger the...feelings are, the brighter they glow. They are said to have been used in ancient times to help actively search for...companionship, before being re-appropriated as...gifts."

Shulk could tell by the pauses that Melia was still subconsciously hiding something, and from the words etched into the Tears' bases, he had a pretty good idea what. "They're powered by love, aren't they?"

Melia slowly nodded, tears starting to well up again. "They were one of the things left to me in the private half of my father's will. With no more imperial family to govern their use, I saw no reason to keep them to myself..." Her voice trailed away as the crying began anew.

The pieces were slowly coming together in Shulk's mind. The High Entia documents from back home that he was using to learn the language, combined with the wording used on the Tears' bases and the information he had just learned, combined to imply that the orb on the black base was the Moon's Tear, the gauge of a woman's fondness towards her lover; on the other hand, the white base marked the Sun's Tear, showing the man's feelings towards the woman. Looking back at the orbs on the desk, at the light show on his stand compared to the dead rock on Melia's, it clicked in his head.

"So...you...fell in love with me? And this thing lit up? And you were embarrassed to love someone who...er, is taken, and so passed it to me in secret?"

Melia nodded while sniffling. "It was an efficient solution that did not pan out as desired."

"Because I opened it in public?" Shulk's eyebrows went up. "Couldn't you have left a note or something that said to not do that?"

A weak chuckle. "You know my handwriting is far too distinct from the rest of the population." She had a point there; even on the translation notes laying on the desk, Melia's script was unnaturally perfect.

Shulk closed his eyes and put a hand on his chin. Melia watched him think for several minutes, weary of where the conversation could be going. She tried to guess what kind of question could be coming next. Her opinion of Fiora? Why the Sun's Tear was a rock? Shulk deciding he didn't want to keep the Moon's Tear? She tried to purge the third option from her head. After a few more minutes, Shulk came back to reality.

"Sorry, I was thinking about the past. I was trying to...um, locate a time where...uh, you changed." This was harder to explain than he expected. "Well, I mean, if I could find a moment where I noticed a change in your behaviour, I could guess when exactly that...um, this whole thing started." A short pause. "But I can't. The whole time I've known you, you've been the same person all along. You're almost too good at hiding your feelings." A chuckle. The next sentence was the awkward one. "So, I guess I have to ask you, when was it that you...fell...for me?"

It was Melia's turn to think hard. When _did_ this whole thing begin? She thought back to when she first met Shulk. She had just recovered from Telethia-induced ether deficiency, and had woken up to him slowly moving closer to her arm. Still with half a mind in combat mode, she had given him a hearty slap in the face, and had to quickly apologize upon realizing he had several friends along. She recalled the unusual way her voice hitched as she delivered the apology - something else was on her mind at the time, a memory from not long before then.

* * *

_Melia was in her chambers, nervously going through the motions of her ether arts. Within a few short hours, she would be departing for Makna Forest alongside her bodyguards in order to eliminate the Telethia known to be loose there. While well-practiced in combat, Melia felt that an entire Telethia was above her level of competence, especially as her Mind Blast was not yet developed enough to successfully purge targets of their auras._

_There was a knock on the door, much sooner than expected for the mission to begin. Melia put down her Practice Staff and straightened up._

_"You may enter."_

_Alvis walked into the room. "Good morning, Your Highness."_

_Melia loosened up slightly. "Hello Seer. For what purpose have you come?"_

_"I have received an unusual vision outside the course of my regular duties." A pause. "It pertains to you, and only you."_

_"To me?" Most of Alvis's visions pertained to the High Entia as a whole and were delivered to the Emperor only. "Does my father know of this?"_

_"He does not, and I do not believe he should." Another pause. "It is much more personal than most visions, yet simultaneously much more vague."_

_Melia didn't like the sound of this; Alvis's normal visions were vague enough. Still, it had to be important. "All right. Let us hear it."_

_Alvis closed his eyes. "There is nothing but blackness, a cold, empty void. A dazzling light cuts though the darkness and illuminates the image of a young man. Then, a voice speaks:_ He who wields the sword of light, shall meet the crown princess, and together change the fate of this world. _"_

_Melia nodded, trying to commit the passage to memory. "A personal and vague vision indeed. Tell me, what did this young man look like?"_

_Alvis's eyes remained closed. "A boy of pale skin and golden hair."_

_Golden hair? Melia had never known a High Entia to retain the golden hair of their birth past the age of ten, far removed from becoming a "young man" with a sword. Maybe he would be half-Homs like herself; rare cases of such colouration were known to exist._

_"Very well. I shall remember your words, and heed them to the best of my ability."_

__"Thank you, Your Highness."_ Alvis bowed as he left the room._

* * *

"I suppose," Melia began as she came back to the present, "it has been the case for as long as I have known you."

Shulk was surprised, the ghost of the slap lingering on his mind. "Really?"

Melai told him of the vision Alvis relayed to her. "I assumed it was a prophecy of marriage, and that it was referring to another half-Homs. But mere seconds upon first setting eyes upon you, I could sense that you were instead the subject." A poignant pause. "I suppose that some part of me was expecting you to develop an equal fondness in return, like the traditional fairy tales. Even after learning of your...prior commitments, I...could not stop myself from..." A third spate of crying began, though weaker than the previous two.

Shulk nodded. He figured any sort of "explain love" question wouldn't get a very concrete answer, but it got him thinking about things he had never considered before.

 _She must feel like she's never been loved,_ was the first thing that popped into his head. _Her mother's been dead for a long time. It wasn't until her father and brother each died that she learned of their love for her, and by then it was too late. And the one person left she has feelings for, me, had no idea the whole time._

_It just doesn't compare to the rest of us. What did any of us lose to the Mechon and Zanza? We got Fiora back good as new. Reyn lost a few of his friends in the Defence Force, but he seemed to take it rather well all things considered. Sharla lost Gadolt pretty much twice, but always had Juju and Otharon to fall back on. Me and Dunban lost Dickson, and he lost a bunch of friends at Sword Valley too...but like Reyn, he at least appeared to get over it pretty quickly. Riki...didn't really lose anything at all, he earned a lot of respect instead. And what did Melia lose?_ _Her family, home, and society, with only a few new friends for support. It's like comparing a few rocks to a pile of rubies.  
_

Melia had stopped crying again, waiting for Shulk's next question or comment. She had never cried this much in one day in her life, her eyes were sore, and her sleeves were quite damp, but it felt like a huge weight was being lifted from her shoulders.

Shulk figured it was his turn to give some answers. "You want to know how I found out it was you, don't you?"

Melia considered the question. Just a few minutes ago she didn't care, but now that the knee-jerk reaction had faded, she was quite interested in not only how Shulk had found out, but how he had entered her locked house in the first place. "Yes."

"Well, it's a bit of a long story..."

* * *

Shulk was about halfway home from the party, his stomped foot aching more with every step. _Straight to bed tonight_ , he was thinking. _No proofreading, no research, no nothing.  
_

"Shulk!" Fiora appeared from behind and leaped onto his back, causing him to crumple like an old newspaper. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I really get you that bad?"

"...um, no, I just wasn't ready for you to jump on me." Shulk was always a terrible liar whenever Fiora was around.

"Well, you dancing fool, I'll help you walk back home." The two wrapped arms around shoulders and started moving.

Upon reaching Shulk's house, Fiora sat him down at the table and started massaging his foot. The two talked about a variety of topics while she worked, and continued to talk once the foot had stopped hurting. The conversation had turned towards Fiora's painting, which was currently propped up against the table pending finding a place to put it for real.

"...wait, but how did you keep it a secret from Dunban? I mean, you kind of live with him, and I'd imagine the paint smells a lot."

"Oh he knew I was painting something big the whole time, but he suspected it might be for him, so he stayed out of the way." Fiora giggled. "You probably missed it, but he gave himself the biggest forehead slap when he saw me holding it all wrapped up. Like he didn't think of it sooner."

Shulk vaguely remembered Dunban making some motion when Fiora neared the front of the gifts line and chuckled. His eyes travelled from the painting to the small wooden box on the table, containing the mystery gift. He brought it over and opened it up, placing the object on the table.

Fiora reached over and turned the base around a few times. "I've never seen writing like this before. If it even is writing."

"I think I might have, but I can't remember where." Shulk stared into the prismatic light. Even as it projected its calming sensation into his mind, he couldn't get over the big question. "Who could this possibly be from? I know it's not from you. You'd make sure everyone knew it was from you."

"Of course." Fiora went into thought. "There's no way it's from Dunban, he's hopeless at hiding things from me. And it can't be from Riki, he'd keep something like this to himself."

"It can't be from Reyn," Shulk added, "he'd never be able to keep it a secret. And Sharla wouldn't give me something like this, she prefers practical gifts."

"Alvis too. And it's certainly not of Machina origin." Fiora paused for a few moments. "That doesn't leave much. I doubt there are many others that know you well enough to give you something like this."

"It can't be from Melia," Shulk continued, "she...uh...hmm...wait a minute..."

"She'd already given you something, one of those books, remember?"

"Yeah, but like you said, we don't have much else." Shulk's brow furrowed. "Maybe she inherited a bunch of High Entia treasures and wants to give some of it away without...um, inviting bidding wars?"

Fiora came to a realization. "Actually, you know what? Melia looked pretty down when she left the party. Obviously not enjoying herself. Maybe you should go cheer her up."

"Um, what?" The sudden shift in topic confused him. He put the gift back in its box and picked it up.

"You heard me." She grabbed his wrist and started pulling. "You can't have gone through the whole day without noticing she wanted no part of any of it, and you interacted with her least of all of us. So go cheer her up! Go! Scoot!"

She did have a point. Shulk had noticed that Melia was staying out of all the events as much as possible, preferring to watch from the sidelines alone. But that didn't seem unusual at all to him. "Are you sure that's a good idea, Fiora?"

"C'mon!" Fiora leapt up and dragged Shulk along for the ride. By the time he fully regained his balance, they had already reached the transport centre.

"Here you are." She tossed a key to Shulk, who caught it in the hand not still holding the mysterious gift. It had a circular handle and was a curious blue-purple colour. "That's the spare key to Melia's house. She gave it to me to keep it safe. Use it _responsibly_." She followed it up with a large wink. "Melia left the colony by foot just after you left the party, so you should get there before she does."

Bewildered, Shulk remained unmoving. "Um...so what do you want me to do, exactly?"

"It's simple. Do whatever you need to do! Don't leave until she's cheered up!" Fiora pushed Shulk onto the transporter. "See you later!"

It would probably be easier to do something with Melia than to convince Fiora otherwise, so Shulk accepted his fate and allowed the transport to happen.

With the transport complete, Shulk found himself standing in what he would call a miniature gazebo, about a minute's walk from Melia's house. He could see that the lights were off - Melia was either not home yet or had already gone to bed.

Shulk cautiously walked up to the front door. He had only ever been here before during the day; the darkness of the clearing's rock walls was eerier then he expected. He raised a hand and knocked. With no response after a minute, he knocked again. Still nothing. He tried a third time just to be sure - again nothing.

 _Melia's a light sleeper,_ he thought, _and she's too polite to ignore people at the door. If she were home she'd have answered by now._

Moving slowly, scared of being caught, Shulk put the key he was given into the lock. It opened effortlessly. He tiptoed inside and turned the light on. The front room was immaculate as usual; not a trace of dirt on the floor, not a speck of food on the counter, no dishes visible. The one unusual item stood out like a sore thumb: a crude map of Colony 9 on the table.

Banging the dirt off his shoes outside and locking the door behind himself, Shulk crept towards the table. The colony map had a path drawn on it that led to the Weapons Development Lab through several seemingly random streets.

 _Why would Melia be plotting a route through Colony 9 that avoids the busy streets,_ thought Shulk, _unless she were trying to do something without being seen?_

This sealed the deal to him - Melia was the one who had given him the mystery gift, which he was still absent-mindindly carrying. That was good enough for him - the "what" and "why" could come later. For now, he had to figure out how to "cheer her up" when she arrives.

His natural curiosity taking over, Shulk turned the light off and edged himself into the bedroom. He had never been in here before; as far as he knew, Melia had never allowed anyone else in since the completion of the house. (Shulk figured that, having now both snuck into each others' rooms, they were even.) The bed sat in the left corner across the back wall, with a desk against the left wall and a reading chair against the right. Aside from the door and two draped windows on the left and right walls, most of the walls were covered in shelves, hosting a variety of books and other trinkets.

Shulk didn't really feel like snooping too much, so he sat at the desk and planned his next move. He decided to turn the lights off and open up the mystery gift, figuring its calming influence would help him think of something.

* * *

Melia was leaning forward like an attentive schoolgirl, eagerly listening to every word of Shulk's tale.

"...and I guess I wasn't really paying attention, because I didn't even notice you'd arrived until you came in here. And...well, here we are."

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, both coming to terms with the relevations the other had presented. Shulk was mentally kicking himself for never noticing Melia's feelings towards him, even after someone had once mentioned that he himself was acting pretty much the same way with regards to Fiora. Melia felt a feeling of freedom, having revealed her one big secret to the one person it concerned, and was overjoyed that Shulk had not simply brushed her off.

Shulk thought back to the afternoon's Nopon play about his adventure. The scene atop Prison Island where Metal Face killed the Emperor, the Monado was unshackled, and Fiora was revealed to still live (with the Faces each played by a conglomeration of six Nopon) was accompanied by a unique musical movement by the band, a choir-backed duet of xylophone and violin noted in the program as "Engage the Enemy". It was a piece that portrayed feelings of fear, loss, and hope all at once.

 _Melia needs to be loved back by someone,_ thought Shulk. _She needs it. She_ deserves _it. And until someone better comes along, it looks like it's up to me._ With the music in his head, he intuited what he had to do.

With one swift movement, Shulk left the desk chair and plopped himself onto the bed next to Melia. "Plop" being the operative word; he misjudged the matress and ended up on his back for a few seconds. Melia giggled, which by itself was unusual.

Shulk decided to speak his mind. "We should do something. Together. Right now. Something you enjoy."

Melia looked at him quizzically. "Why? I feel a lighter mood than I have felt in many months. You have done what you set out tonight to do."

"No, I'm not done. Cheering you up was what Fiora pushed me to do, but...I see something else now." He looked back at her. "You need someone to love you. Not someone who's a distant memory, but someone who's here right now."

"But...Shulk, you love Fiora with all your heart. I would never expect you to hinder that relationship simply for my benefit."

Shulk shook his head. "You've done so much for others at the expense of yourself, it's time someone returned the favour. Maybe I can't give you the love you wished for, but I can give you enough to make a difference." He took her hand. "So, what do _you_ want to do?"

There was a quiet hissing noise. The two of them looked over to the source: the Sun's Tear was undergoing a transformation. Its rocky body was slowly breaking into fragments and dissolving, leaving a featureless glassy globe behind. The tiniest pinprick of white light was visible in the centre, like a star in a dark sky.

Melia turned back to Shulk, teary eyes sparkling. A liberating feeling was flowing over her mind, as if someone who had lived in a closet all their life had finally opened the door.

"Let's go stargazing. Together."

* * *

Midnight had come and gone. The moon had found the only pesky cloud in the sky, dimming its light to almost nothing - perfect for finding the fainter stars.

Melia and Shulk were lying in the grass behind the house, swapping stargazing knowledge and stories. Shulk was an astronomer more than an astrologer and was keenly interested in the patterns of the wanderers and the possibility that more could exist, too faint for the naked eye to see. None of his other companions cared much for the sky, so it felt unusual to be holding an extended conversation about it.

Eventually, Shulk began stirring. "Well, I think I should head home and go to sleep now. Reyn's gonna have a killer hangover and someone's going to have to deal with him."

"Alright." Melia was feeling tired too; all the walking from the past two days was catching up to her. "I could use a rest as well."

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then. Hopefully I can get this telegraph thing up and running. Say, maybe you could help with it. I don't think we have enough wire to reach any of the other colonies from Colony 9, but we might just be able to reach to your place. What do you say?"

"I can hardly wait."

The two started making their way back to Melia's house, where Melia would enter and Shulk would continue past to the transporter. Before they went their separate ways, however, Shulk paused.

"Hang on, I wanted to ask you something. Now what was it?" He scratched his head for a moment. "Oh yeah. When's your birthday?"

Even after all that had occurred already, Melia was taken aback by the question. "The twenty-second of February. Why do you ask?"

"Good. I was afraid we'd missed it!" Shulk smirked. "See you tomorrow!"

Melia watched Shulk jog off towards the transporter. She had the distinct feeling that she was about to receive an unscheduled birthday party in six months' time. Lazily sauntering back into the house, she collected the dropped fudge from so long ago and placed it back in the cupboard. Then she retired to her room to find the last surprise of the night - Shulk had forgotten to pick up the Moon's Tear, leaving it brilliantly shining alongside the newly-freed Sun's Tear.

 _Typical Shulk_ , she thought to herself. _He'll be back tomorrow with a hand-shaped dent in his forehead._

Still, with this being the first night where looking upon the Tears brought happiness rather than shame, she was okay with possessing them both for one last time.


	4. Epilogue

Shulk was sitting at his kitchen table, munching away at his bowl of cereal. He knew that several people, especially Fiora, didn't appreciate him having cereal for lunch, but he didn't care. An all-encompassing thought had manifested itself in his mind the previous day and refused to go away.

There was a knock on the door. Shulk wasn't sure whether he expected it or not, but he was pleased who he found when he opened the door.

"Ah, Alvis, just who I wanted to see."

"Of course." Alvis hadn't changed a bit in the new world; while his "I know everything and won't tell you" attitude was a little faded, he still gave off a distinct aura of superior knowledge. No one ever got used to it.

"Um, why don't you come in, I guess." Shulk offered Alvis a seat at the table and pushed his cereal to the side. "So, I have a question for you. About Melia."

"Could you not ask her?"

"Well, I have her side of the story already, but it doesn't make sense. See, about a week ago, she told me that the day we met, you relayed a vision to her beforehand. Something about "look out for the gold-hair boy". But she described...uh...your description, as staring into a black void and hearing a voice speak words. And that doesn't sound at all like how my visions worked." Pause. "So, I guess my question is, is that really how you received visions?"

Alvis's face changed into an exaggerated frown as he nodded, seemingly considering what to say. Shulk was about to apologize for the question before he responded.

"I saw my visions in much the same fashion as you did."

"So you lied to her?"

A long pause. "The majority of your visions were short flashes of things that would come to pass within minutes or even seconds. By contrast, I could have visions of long stretches of the future, months or even years in advance. I told Melia what she needed to hear for the correct future to re-assert itself."

"The...correct future?"

"If you are still intrigued, then I can tell you more. However, you may be disturbed about the nature of my story, and you must promise to tell no one of it, especially Melia."

Shulk hesitated. He didn't exactly expect a straight answer from Alvis, but was at least hoping that it would be short and simple, not something convuluted he'd have to keep a secret. He sat in thought for a full minute.

"Okay."

Alvis gave a half-smirk as Shulk's vision flashed a brilliant white.

* * *

Shulk felt himself floating in endless space as Alvis's voice filled his mind.

_This is the story of how Melia met Shulk - and what would have happened had she not._

Shulk was suddenly standing in the Alcamoth throne room. From a distance, he saw his party meeing with Melia on the throne, though he could not hear them.

_At the time you first ventured onto the leg of the Bionis, this is what the future looked like. Melia was not sent to fight a Telethia in the forest, and was never sent into the tomb to face the trials there. Your group did not meet her until after she became empress, after the death of Sorean. She was eager for revenge upon Metal Face and joined your party solely on that basis. From there, the future proceeded essentially as you remember it, with only minor differences.  
_

Shulk watched the world disappear and reform. He was now in what looked to be a secret occult meeting room - while it was quite dark, he could see Lorithia in discussion with Yumea.

_At some point during your journey, Zanza somehow made contact with Lorithia. She and Yumea had already orchestrated several covert attempts on Melia's life, all unsuccessful. I do not know the nature of Zanza's message for certain, but I believe it pertained to a sort of deadline, and to suggest more overt schemes if necessary before time runs out and the Monado arrives in Alcamoth. At that point, the future changed._

The world vanished and reappeared again. This time, Shulk watched as the rejuvinated Melia slapped him twice and walked away from the group.

_When the new meeting point arrived, Melia refused your help. She continued to search for and fight the Telethia on her own._

Shulk watched as Melia repeatedly encountered the Telethia in various locations across the forest, fighting it to a draw several times across many days.

_Seeking out and attacking the beast a total of seven times, Melia refused to concede defeat, yet could never claim victory. After the seventh battle, the creature retreated to the interior of the Bionis, no longer interested in remaining in the forest._

For the first time in the series of visions, Shulk got a clear, close-up view of Melia as she limped to the Illustrious Alighting, a personal vehicle about half the size of a Havres that was how she and her guards had initially travelled to the forest. She was caked in dirt, mud, and a bit of blood, her clothes were torn all over, she was clearly undernourished, her left wing was bent at a disturbing angle, and there was a deep gash in her staff.

_Melia returned to Alcamoth ashamed of herself for failure. But the worst was yet to come._

The scene returned to the throne room. Standing in front of the throne, Kallian had his head bowed to Melia, who was kneeling and still disheveled.

_Kallian told her of how Sorean was killed by Metal Face as your group released Zanza from Prison Island, several days prior._

At this point, Shulk expected Melia to cry a little bit and get consoled by Kallian. He did not expect her to fly into a rage, snap her Protect Staff over the throne, snatch the Imperial Staff from its perch, and make a mad dash for the exit.

_Blinded by emotion, Melia decided that you were to blame for all her troubles. Powered by nothing but rage and revenge, she stole the Illustrious Alighting and chased after you on Valak Mountain._

Shulk found himself hovering over Mumkhar as he picked his alternate self up by the neck. At this point in the history Shulk knew, Melia had fired a Mind Blast that stunned Metal Face and knocked Mumkhar enough askew to free him and the Monado.

Suddenly, the sound was turned on. The observing Shulk could hear the howling of the wind across the mountain and Mumkhar's ugly voice.

"So what's it to be weaklings? Grovel at my feet and beg?"

A new sound cut through the wind, a high-pitched whirring akin to an engine running at full power. Everyone looked up to see Melia screaming in on the Illustrious Alighting, aiming to crash-land directly on both Shulk and Mumkhar.

"Rrrgh!" Mumkhar dropped Shulk and the Monado to extend his claws and gave the incoming vehicle a mighty slash. It was knocked out of its dive and rammed into Metal Face, where it exploded in a massive fireball.

Shulk scampered over to the Monado and picked it up as the party surrounded Mumkhar. He glanced over to Fiora's body, which was not injured in the blast; Metal Face's bulk had absorbed pretty much all of it.

"You're a traitor, Mumkhar. And you're not getting away." Dunban led the attack. "Riki, Sharla! Go see if whoever just flew in is alright!"

The two teammates nodded and moved off as Shulk, Dunban, and Reyn focused on fighting Mumkhar. They arrived at the two Faces to see Melia crawling out from under the transport's wreckage, covered in fresh burns and shrapnel.

"It's...it's you! From the forest!" Sharla loaded a healing round into her rifle. "Stay still for a moment, this will-"

Sharla was cut off by a vicious staff slash to the throat and collapsed. Confused, Riki stood still for just a moment too long and was stomped into the snow before being frozen solid.

"What in the..." Reyn saw what had happened and turned to the other two. "We've got some rogue High Entia that's comin' to fight us too!"

The battle got very messy. Shulk, Reyn, and Dunban were trying to take down Mumkhar while at the same time trying to contain Melia without injuring her further. Mumkhar was somewhat bemused by the situation and continued to focus on Shulk's group, figuring he could deal with Melia pretty easily afterwards. Melia was attacking everything that moved with no rhyme or reason, firing off five elementals at a time while hemorrhaging ether from all over her body.

Eventually, Dunban managed to daze Mumkhar. Shulk took advantage of the opportunity to run up to Melia, deflecting elementals fired at him, and rip the staff out of her hands, shutting off her burst aura.

"Sorry, but we need you to stop trying to kill us!" He gave her a push in the belly with the deactivated Monado, which he expected to just knock her on her rear. Instead, she instantly fell backwards into the snow and lay unmoving. Disturbed by the result of his action but with no hint of regret, he went back to help the main fight.

The observing Shulk was horrified. The scene went quiet once again as Egil appeared and the Mechon all departed, followed by Kallian arriving in a Havres with several warriors in tow.

_Emperor Kallian apologized to you and your party for Melia's actions, but the damage was done: she would never be fighting alongside you. She was carried back to Alcamoth and placed under constant guard; not allowed to leave her chambers for any reason; disgraced, sullied, no passion to even consider resistance, and with her ether affinity permanently exhausted._

The scene shifted to Melia's bedroom. It was the day of Zanza's awakening: the skies outside the window were full of newly-born Telethia. Melia was reduced to a quivering mass in her bed, alternating between profuse crying and violent outbursts.

_When Zanza was reborn, the Telethia born in Alcamoth proceeded to kill all the half-bloods that remained. With no idea what was occurring, once Melia realized that the creatures would soon be after her, she made her first and only attempt to escape._

Shulk watched as Melia reached into her sock drawer and pulled out a black band. Placing it on her wrist, she tapped it to reveal a blue display showing a network of tubes. She went into her closet and clambered up through the grate on the ceiling, vanishing into the ductwork.

_Using a device she had kept hidden since her childhood, Melia hid in Alcamoth's maintenance shafts for several days, raiding abandoned grocery stores for increasingly-stale food and unable to sleep more than an hour at a time. Once the edible food was exhausted and the power to the vents dwindled, her only option was to leave Alcamoth.  
_

With the transporters out of power, Melia stood perched on the edge of the capitol, ready to jump into the sea. She was a mess again, with completely frazzled hair and feathers, and a look that suggested recent food poisoning. She had clearly raided some sort of armoury in preparation for her departure: strapped to various parts of her body were several knives, four ether revolvers, two rapiers, and a case of regenerating ammo. Holding a large sheet with both hands, she leapt off the edge and floated down to the water.

_Melia travelled down the Bionis alone, clumsily fighting off native beasts along the way, looking for sanctuary. None was found. Frontier Village was a burning husk, not a single Nopon spared. With Shulk never regaining consciousness, Colony 6 was razed to the ground, the battle being lost with all hands. By the time Melia arrived to Colony 9, it had been a week since its destruction._

Shulk watched as Melia arrived to each ruined village and futily searched for survivors. Upon reaching Colony 9, the last hope, she slowly fell to the ground in despair.

_Having been secretly following her the entire way, waiting for this moment, Lorithia revealed herself._

"Well, well, well. I'm honestly surprised you managed to get all the way down here. I like your...gumption." An at-your-expense laugh. "Say, I could use a little helper to wait on me whist I live out my immortal existence in the next world. You wouldn't have any objections, of course. Who would _ever_ choose to be left behind in this dreary, lonely world?"

The world went black, leaving Shulk alone.

_Melia was made into Lorithia's personal trophy slave, with no respect or dignity, kept alive against her will by painful ether injections. The will of Zanza came to pass unopposed._

* * *

The real world suddenly came back into focus. Shulk stared at Alvis for a good two minutes, trying to process all of what he had just seen.

"So..." he began. "You realized the future had changed, and told Melia a lie in order to fix it?"

"I told her what she needed to hear." Alvis repeated what he said earlier. He seemed like the type to avoid admitting he had "lied".

"But...you couldn't see what the future would be until after you change it, right?"

"That is correct. I could only see the future that would come to pass should I take no action. Anything beyond that could be no more than a well-educated guess."

"Okay, so why did you guess that you needed to poke Melia to fix things? I mean, maybe if you did something else, Zanza might not have been reborn at all, and then whatever happens to Melia is kind of irrelevant...right?"

Alvis showed the half-smirk again. "Because you told me."

It took Shulk a few seconds. "...What?"

"Do you remember the conversation we had when Zanza was reborn, and you were contemplating the meaning of your life?"

"Yes."

"While I was experiencing the vision I just showed you, I was interrupted by that conversation. I did not choose to envision that part of the future, yet it occurred as if I had. While it was an unexpected development, it also acted as the final piece of proof that you were indeed destined to escape destiny."

"...so how did it go?"

"It was almost word-for-word as what you remember - except for the ending." As Alvis opened his palm on the table top, Shulk could hear the conversation forming in his head.

_"Alvis...does something feel...off about the world to you?"_

_"Yes. Something is indeed not as it should be. Do you know what it is?"_

_"...I'm not sure. But...something is missing. I can feel a...an emptiness in my heart, almost like...like I'm remembering a long-lost friend..."_

As the sound died away, something else fought its way to the front of Shulk's mind. He remembered the vision that he had seen on the day that Reyn had picked up the Monado, showing him quick flashes of people he did not know at the time but would meet over the course of his adventure.

"...Okay, now I'm confused." Shulk started absent-mindingly poking his finger around on the table. "You said that, when we got to the Bionis's leg, the future had us first meeting Melia in the throne room. But in the vision I saw before we even left Colony 9, we were helping her defeat the Telethia in the forest. How did I see a future that you hadn't set up yet?"

Alvis nodded again. "Time is a curious construct. Not even I have the luxury of a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint to observe it from. And nor can I perceive the future sight of another being. It is a shame that, after all, some questions in life must remain unanswered." He stood up. "If that is all, I shall be going now. Again, I suggest that what you have just learned remain a secret."

"...no."

"No?"

Shulk looked up at Alvis. "For now, yes. But forever? I'm not so sure. Maybe one day, Melia will ask the same questions I just did. Or maybe a different question that needs the same answer. And she deserves to know more than I do."

"If that is what you believe, I will not stop you. But consider that some things are not meant to be known, that some mysteries are better off left unsolved." Alvis walked out the door.

Shulk was left to ponder.


End file.
